I know this is a big cliche: Even if we clearly understand what people (or groups of them) want, what course should they take? It is easy to philosophize over social/political goals, but most of the time these goals are so idealistic and the "bad situation" that we are stuck in is so practical and commonsensical that people are tempted to give away goals and demands and simply ask for something that is just a bit better. The fact is that even this "a little better thing" did not happen in Iran.

You make an interesting point that a lack of reliable information about what people want allows political figures to arbitrarily claim that they are representing the national will. But I wonder why you are emphasizing the need for "independent" and "objective" sources in assessing what Iranians' desires actually are (or were). While the perspective of an "outsider" can sometimes be useful in analyzing a situation, the opinions of "insiders" are useful, too-- particularly when the motivations of those insiders are the subject of your study! Are there, for example, any good autobiographies or memoirs from those times? Or collections of interviews of revolutionaries? Or is your point that anything of this sort has been completely suppressed by government censorship of the press in Iran?

Kaveh: the method by which Iranians should reach their demands is very important in my opinion; but I'm only concerned about the demands here since they make the basis for that method. If I advocate a democracy, for instace, I won't attain it by violent methods I believe. And yes, highly idealistic demands can drive the movement astray. My point is this: after six years of the so-called reform movement, it seems to me that Iranians don't know what they want as a society. We think the majority is in for reforms, but we don't know what kind. Do they want the Supreme Leader or not? Or maybe they just want him to be there to give the government a religious outlook/spirit but not do anything, a kind of constitutional Rule of Jurist (Velayat-e Faqih)? [I will write on these in the second part of this post, hopefullt] I... [more at the permalink of the entry above]

Realizing what people's demands are, as you say, is a very delicate issue. I think most of us just know we are not happy with the present situation but don’t have a clear picture of what kind of democracy and for what price we are hoping for. if we get a chance, which as kaveh points out is such an idealistic view, setting a goal on a long term democratic system seems better to me than setting a goal on people's present demands because it isn't such a well-defined function of time. Looking back at the revolution and considering that having an Islamic republic wasn't the only favorite choice, what were the other favorite alternatives among people or at least those who were leading the revolution? Becoming another Cuba or Having Ragavis as our leaders? Do you think that would have made people happy today?

Being an independent observer is no guarantee for getting correct information. For example, Michel Foucault, the person that you mentioned in your article as an unbiased source of information, was the one whose eyewitness account contained misleading information. He visited Iran after the 1978 Zhale Sq massacre in Tehran by Shah regime. He reported what revolutionaries claimed to be the number of dead, 3000 people, as truth. Now, Emad-o-din Baghi, the famous investigative journalist, has dug up the right number, 68, which was in fact the number reported by the government of the time. ( reference in persian http://iran-emrooz.de/maqal/baghi820508.html ) Nonetheless, Focault is admirable because of his self-critism and self-correction of his perspective of the events.

Ghazal: I agree that people's demands are not such a well-defined function of time, as you say, and that setting a gaol on a democratic governmet is more important. But knowing people's demands is a vital piece of information: it shows the level of maturaity for any social change in the first place, and serves as a kind of initial condition for any reform program. Your concluding questions are vague to me. I don't know what would have made people happy today. What we have now is little better than Cuba, and in some respects even worse; they have a social system to boast to at least, with 0% illiteracy, etc. As to Ragavis and MKO, I can only be happy they seem to be far from getting to power. Yahya: Getting the numbers right is very difficult. We should admire Mr. Baqi for his courage and exactitude. Being... [more at the permalink of the entry above]